[TheClimate.Vote] April 13, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/April 13, 2019/


[Severe - The Weather Channel]
*Severe Weather Outbreak Expected This Weekend in the South, Including 
Threat of Strong Tornadoes*
https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/2019-04-12-severe-thunderstorm-tornado-wind-hail-weekend-system-mid-april
- -
[More bad wx]
*Spring blizzard fueled by Arctic warming, climate change*
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blockbuster-blizzard-midwest-plains-snow-linked-to-climate-change-arctic-warming/


[The other pole]
*"Hair Dryer" Winds Could Strain Vulnerable Antarctic Ice Shelf*
Warm, dry winds can cause major melt as they sweep across the ice, even 
during frigid winter months
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ldquo-hair-dryer-rdquo-winds-could-strain-vulnerable-antarctic-ice-shelf/


[single issue candidate]
*Jay Inslee's CNN town hall showed he wants to lead on climate. Voters 
have other priorities too.*
The Washington governor focused on global warming, but also fielded 
questions on health care, gun control, and Boeing.
By German Lopez -  Apr 11, 2019
- -
Before the town hall, Inslee's vision seemed to be struggling. It's 
still very early in the primaries, but in the RealClearPolitics average 
of the polls, Inslee doesn't come out in the top 10 among the 
candidates. He has less than 1 percent support -- lagging very far 
behind big names like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, but also behind 
lesser-known candidates like Kirsten Gillibrand and Julian Castro.


The town hall perhaps showed why. Although Inslee started the town hall 
and ended it by mostly focusing on global warming and steering 
conversation back to his preferred topic, most of the attendees' 
questions were not about global warming. One of the questioners 
lamented, "Unfortunately, there's not been much information about your 
stances on several issues" -- besides global warming and the environment.

So for about two-thirds of the event, Inslee answered questions about 
other issues -- many of which are deeply important to voters, and are 
likely to come up for the next president, whether it's a Democrat or Trump.

This reflects a real problem for Inslee's campaign to the White House: A 
lot of voters don't seem to see global warming in the same way that he does.

In a Pew Research Center survey earlier this year, climate change came 
second to last in a list of 18 topics -- losing out to the economy, 
health care costs, education, terrorism, and more. Among just Democrats, 
climate change fell behind health care costs, education, the 
environment, Medicare, and poverty.

One poll did find that among Democrats in the early primary states of 
Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and California, taking 
action on climate change is the top issue along with achieving universal 
health care.

The problem may come when Inslee tries to force voters to decide between 
climate change and health care or a host of other issues. As he has 
written, electing a candidate focused on global warming may mean 
"deferring other worthy goals."

"If this is not job one -- of defeating climate change -- it will not 
get done," Inslee said at the town hall. "You know you have a to-do list 
on your refrigerator? We just can't have our nominee just have it on the 
to-do list. It's got to be on the top, otherwise we will not succeed in 
doing this."

Democratic voters, amped up about other issues along with global 
warming, may not be ready to be single-issue voters on climate. And as 
the CNN town hall showed, that might make it hard for Inslee to stick to 
his singular focus on climate change, as worthy as a cause as it may be.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/11/18305195/jay-inslee-cnn-town-hall-climate-change



[Nuke doom takes an action decision, whereas inaction enable global 
warming doom]
*Chomsky: Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change & the Undermining of Democracy 
Threaten Future of Planet*
Democracy Now!
Published on Apr 12, 2019
As President Trump pulls out of key nuclear agreements with Russia and 
moves to expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal, Noam Chomsky looks at how the 
threat of nuclear war remains one of the most pressing issues facing 
mankind. In a speech at the Old South Church in Boston, Chomsky also 
discusses the threat of climate change and the undermining of democracy 
across the globe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_HSPpGEJCo about 6:30 in.


[Demonstration]
*Emma Thompson - "On April 15th the International Rebellion begins, be 
there!" - Extinction Rebellion*
ExtinctionRebellion
Published on Apr 8, 2019
"The climate change argument is now a race between consciousness and 
cataclysm" - Emma Thompson
The 10 Working Principles of Extinction Rebellion
https://Rebellion.Earth/who-we-are/#p...
1.   We have a shared vision of change
2.   We set our mission on what is necessary
3.   We need a re-generative culture
4.   We hopefully challenge ourselves, and this toxic system
5.   We value reflection and learning
6.   We welcome everyone, and every part of everyone into Extinction 
Rebellion
7.   We actively mitigate for power
8.   We avoid blaming and shaming
9.   We are a non-violent movement
10. We are based on autonomy and de-centralization
World Map of XR Chapters: https://tinyurl.com/XRchapters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9HokE2FBE


[More Jem Bendell]
*The study on collapse they thought you should not read - yet*
Posted by jembendell on July 26, 2018
https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/the-study-on-collapse-they-thought-you-should-not-read-yet/
- -- 
[new label: Deep Transformation]
*Responding to Green Positivity Critiques of Deep Adaptation*
- -
The primary reason for this headlong fling toward disaster is that our 
economic system is based on perpetual growth--on the need to consume the 
earth at an ever-increasing rate. Our world is dominated by 
transnational corporations, which now account for sixty-nine of the 
world's largest hundred economies. The value of these corporations is 
based on investors' expectations for their continued growth, which they 
are driven to achieve at any cost, including the future welfare of 
humanity and the living earth.

It's a gigantic Ponzi scheme that barely gets a mention because the 
corporations also own the mainstream media, along with most governments. 
The real discussions we need about humanity's future don't make it to 
the table. Even a policy goal as ambitious as the Green New 
Deal--rejected by most mainstream pundits as utterly unrealistic--would 
still be insufficient to turn things around, because it doesn't 
acknowledge the need to transition our economy away from its reliance on 
endless growth...
- - -
Paradoxically, the very precariousness of our current system, teetering 
on the extremes of brutal inequality and ecological devastation, 
increases the potential for deep structural change. Research in complex 
systems reveals that, when a system is stable and secure, it's very 
resistant to change. But when the linkages within the system begin to 
unravel, it's far more likely to undergo the kind of deep restructuring 
our world requires.My reply: Unlike previous social revolutions, climate 
change has been the wrong kind of challenge. It was largely invisible 
and with no clear enemy and no clear policy ask - because our 
civilization was based on fossil fuels. I have argued in my paper that 
recent measurements suggest we are experiencing non-linear climate 
change, which is no longer under our control. Therefore, we could soon 
witness the most exponential social movement in history and it won't 
stop collapse. However, it might achieve a lot else: we could reduce 
harm, save more people from starving, work out how to stop the Arctic 
unfreezing and threatening human extinction, or organize to avert 
meltdowns of nuclear stations in countries that collapse, and learn how 
to care for each other and ourselves through this calamity. Indeed, I am 
hopeful of an exponential transformation in human consciousness as we 
wake up to our predicament and thus our delusions of dominion and 
progress. Meanwhile, Jeremy offers a new term…
https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/the-study-on-collapse-they-thought-you-should-not-read-yet/
- - -
[Bendell resonates]
*It's not Deep Adaptation that we need right now--it's Deep 
Transformation. *
Four questions guide our work on Deep Adaptation within the forum:

     Resilience: what do we most value that we want to keep and how?
     Relinquishment: what do we need to let go of so as not to make 
matters worse?
     Restoration: what could we bring back to help us with these 
difficult times?
     Reconciliation: with what and whom shall we make peace as we awaken 
to our mutual mortality?

These questions invite exploration of Deep Adaptation to our climate 
predicament in order to develop both collapse-readiness and 
collapse-transcendence.

    Collapse-readiness includes the mental and material measures that
    will help reduce disruption to human life - enabling an equitable
    supply of the basics like food, water, energy, payment systems and
    health.
    Collapse-transcendence refers to the psychological, spiritual and
    cultural shifts that may enable more people to experience greater
    equanimity toward future disruptions and the likelihood that our
    situation is beyond our control.

Uncertainty and lack of control are key aspects of our predicament; we 
do not know whether what we do will slow climate change and societal 
collapse or reduce harm at scale. It looks likely to us that many will 
die young and that we may die sooner than we had expected. That does not 
mean we do not try to extend the glide and soften the crash - and learn 
from the whole experience.

One thing that rapid climate change can help us to learn is the 
destructiveness of our delusions about reality and what is important in 
life. Key to this delusion is the emphasis many of us place on our 
separate identities. Since birth we have been invited to "other" people 
and nature. We often assume other people to be less valuable, smart or 
ethical as us. Or we assume we know what they think. We justify that in 
many ways, using stories of nationality, gender, morals, personal 
survival, or simply being "too busy". Similarly, we have been encouraged 
to see nature as separate from us. Therefore, we have not regarded the 
rivers, soils, forests and fields as part of ourselves. Taken together, 
this othering of people and nature means we dampen any feelings of 
connection or empathy to such a degree that we can justify exploitation, 
discrimination, hostility, violence, and rampant consumption.

Seeking physical and psychological security and pleasure through control 
of our surroundings and how people interact with us is both a personal 
malaise and at the root of our collective malaise. Yet, as we see more 
pain in the world, and sense that it will get worse, it is possible that 
we will shrink from it. It is easier to consider other people's pain as 
less valid as one's own pain or that of the people and pets we know. But 
there is another way. The suffering of others presents us with an 
opportunity to feel and express love and compassion. Not to save or to 
fix, but to be open to sensing the pain of all others and letting that 
transform how we live in the world. It does not need to lead to 
paralysis or depression, but to being fully present to life in every 
moment, however it manifests. This approach is the opposite of othering 
and arises from a loving mindset, where we experience universal 
compassion to all beings. It is the love that our climate predicament 
invites us to connect with. It is the love in deep adaptation.

Therefore, in our work with others on deep adaptation, we wish to pursue 
and enable loving responses to our predicament. Every interaction offers 
an opportunity for compassion. It can seem difficult when it feels as if 
someone is trying to criticise your view, perhaps because they prefer to 
see collapse as unlikely or human extinction as certain. But to return 
to compassion, even if we fall away from it in the moment, feels an 
important way of living our truth. And it is something we can do at any 
time. As leadership coach Diana Reynolds recently explained, "the 
incredible compassionate revolution starts here, starts now."

As this topic involves questions of mortality, impermanence, insecurity 
and uncontrollability, everyone who is finding themselves navigating 
their way through is experiencing many strong emotional responses, which 
may feel turbulent, overwhelming, exhausting as well as energising or 
enlivening. Often these emotions affect us, including ourselves and our 
colleagues, in ways that we may not be aware of. Therefore, in the small 
team working in the Deep Adaptation Forum, and the wider group of 
volunteers, we invite each other to consider three principles:

    Return to compassion. We shall seek to return to universal
    compassion in all our work, and remind each other to notice in
    ourselves when anger, fear, panic, or insecurity may be influencing
    our thoughts or behaviours. It is also important to remember to take
    care of ourselves, especially when the urgency of our predicament
    can easily lead to burnout.
    Return to curiosity. We recognise that we do not have many answers
    on specific technical or policy matters. Instead, our aim is to
    provide a space and an invitation to participate in generative
    dialogue that is founded in kindness and curiosity.
    Return to respect. We respect other people's situations and however
    they may be reacting to our alarming predicament, while seeking to
    build and curate nourishing spaces for deep adaptation.

We hope that all of us in the team continue to provide useful 
information, avoid negativity, and invite everyone to engage as peers. 
We also apologise in advance for any times where we do not seem to be 
living these principles.
https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2019/04/10/responding-to-green-positivity-critiques-of-deep-adaptation/


[Let's all go to the movies - commentary]
*Netflix's Our Planet Delivers Thrills, But Something's Missing*
Brian Kahn
- - -
Our Planet is the first un-nature documentary, and its message is this: 
For the first time, one species living on Earth will choose what the 
future looks like. And that species is us. But while the show itself 
makes its case well , the actual steps it asks viewers to take are minor 
at a time when we need to completely (and rapidly) overhaul our 
relationship with the planet.

By the numbers alone, it's clear Our Planet was a painstaking endeavor. 
The show took four years to shoot, involved 2,000 hours of dives, 
400,000 hours of camera trap footage, and visits to 60 countries. The 
resulting eight-part series takes viewers on a journey around the world...
- - -
The moment that shook me most was a walrus haul-out in the Arctic. 
Warming oceans have shrunk sea ice, forcing walruses to huddle on shore 
more often. In excruciating footage, Our Planet shows walruses scaling 
cliffs and then, sensing movement of the herd below, flinging themselves 
to their death on the rocks as the rest of huddle scatters into the 
water. Their bloated corpses in the shallows then became food for polar 
bears, which are also spending more time on land thanks to climate change.

"This is fucked up," my wife said to me as we watched. I dreamed about 
dead walruses later that night.

The show isn't a complete downer, though. It shows how marine protected 
areas have helped humpback whales rebound and restoring fisheries has 
led to a shorebird revitalization. The last segment of the final episode 
focuses on how wildlife have come back to Chernobyl's exclusion zone. 
Mute the show and take in the drone shots of trees rising among the 
buildings and the scene could be from a science fiction movie where 
humans lives in harmony with nature.
All of this makes the eloquent case that humanity is not just the 
driving force on, well, our planet, but that the steps we collectively 
take next will decide the fate of the wildlife we share it with. Yet the 
biggest things that I got hung up on watching Our Planet were the 
incremental steps it advocates its viewers take and the general absence 
of humanity, which is so central to the narrative the show puts forward.
- -
I'm a firm believer in "doing your part," but the solutions Our Planet 
offers are a sad coda after watching the show. The issues facing our 
world require require system change, not signing petitions. I definitely 
enjoyed the show for what it is, but if the intent is to mobilize the 
masses to stave off the sixth mass extinction, I don't think it'll serve 
as much of a course correction.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/netflix-s-our-planet-delivers-thrills-but-somethings-m-1833838340


*This Day in Climate History - April 13, 2012 - from D.R. Tucker*
April 13, 2012: In the Spokane, Washington Spokesman-Review, "Democracy 
Now" host Amy Goodman observes: "The Pentagon knows it. The world’s 
largest insurers know it. Now, governments may be overthrown because of 
it. It is climate change, and it is real. According to the U.S. National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, last month was the hottest March 
on record for the United States since 1895, when records were first 
kept, with average temperatures of 8.6 degrees above average. More than 
15,000 March high-temperature records were broken nationally. Drought, 
wildfires, tornadoes and other extreme weather events are already 
plaguing the country."
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/apr/13/climate-change-a-hot-issue/
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